M09 · LESSONS 93–97

Module 9 · The Three Systems: Taiyi, Qimen, and Liuren (Lessons 93–97)

“The Three Systems” (san shi) is a later collective label for Taiyi, Qimen Dunjia, and Great Liuren. A mnemonic says “Taiyi for Heaven, Qimen for Earth, Liuren for people,” but it is a rough guide to common subject matter, not a definition used consistently in every period. This module compares their inputs, chart layers, procedures, and historical evidence.

Lesson 93 · Overview of the Three Systems#

Learning goals#

• Describe the customary division of focus among the three systems.
• Understand what an shi divination board can—and cannot—show historically.

Lesson#

Traditional shorthand associates Taiyi with national cycles, disasters, and military affairs; Qimen with timing, direction, and strategy; and Great Liuren with detailed human affairs. Their structures differ: Taiyi uses accumulated years and palace cycles; Qimen overlays stems, stars, gates, and spirits on a nine-palace chart; Great Liuren uses a Heaven/Earth plate, Four Lessons, Three Transmissions, and twelve generals. In Great Liuren, the Four Lessons are four relations derived from day stem and branch; the Three Transmissions are the initial, middle, and final positions selected by rules. The terms describe a traditional chart, not verified stages in real events.

An shi is a divination instrument with a round upper plate that can turn over a square lower plate. “Round Heaven, square Earth” is a cosmological interpretation of its shape, not its modern measurement function. A lacquered board excavated from a Western Han tomb at Shuanggudui, Fuyang, provides material evidence for Han-era divination instruments and cosmological models; see this study of the Fuyang boards. Archaeological documentation supports claims about the object and context; identifying its markings with a later named algorithm is a scholarly interpretation. It does not prove that all later Three Systems procedures were already fixed, or that divination was accurate.

System	Common focus	Main chart elements
Taiyi	National cycles, calamity, military affairs	Taiyi's circuit through eight palaces; accumulated-year calculations
Qimen Dunjia	Direction, timing, strategy	Nine Palaces, Eight Gates, Nine Stars, Eight Spirits, Three Wonders and Six Instruments
Great Liuren	Specific human affairs	Heaven/Earth plates, Four Lessons, Three Transmissions, Twelve Generals

Practice#

1. Sketch a round Heaven plate over a square Earth plate.
2. List the earlier course topics used by each system: stems/branches, solar terms, Nine Palaces, trigrams, or void branches.
3. Read a Shuanggudui board study and separate object description from later interpretation.

Check your understanding#

1. What is meant by “Qimen for Earth” in the mnemonic?
2. What are the shapes of the upper and lower plates?
3. What can the Shuanggudui board establish, and what can it not establish?

Answers: 1. Qimen traditionally emphasizes spatial orientation. 2. Round above, square below. 3. It documents a Han-era divination instrument and cosmological model; it does not establish that later systems were already complete or predictive.

Lesson 94 · Qimen Dunjia I: Chart Structure#

Learning goals#

• Identify Qimen's four chart layers.
• Memorize the Nine Stars, Eight Gates, and Six Instruments.

Lesson#

Qimen Dunjia places time and directional symbols over the Luoshu Nine Palaces. The Earth Plate is the base layer for the Three Wonders and Six Instruments. The Heaven Plate carries the Nine Stars, the Human Plate the Eight Gates, and the Spirit Plate the Eight Spirits. “Original palace” means a star or gate's starting location on a reference chart, not its position in every completed chart.

“Dun Jia” means that Jia, the first Heavenly Stem, is concealed beneath another symbol in the procedure. The Six Instruments are Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui; the Three Wonders are Yi, Bing, and Ding. The six Jia-hour markers correspond to the Six Instruments: Jia-Zi hides under Wu, Jia-Xu under Ji, Jia-Shen under Geng, Jia-Wu under Xin, Jia-Chen under Ren, and Jia-Yin under Gui.

The Nine Stars are chart names—Tianpeng, Tianrui, Tianchong, Tianfu, Tianqin, Tianxin, Tianzhu, Tianren, and Tianying—not nine actual planets. The Eight Gates are Rest, Life, Injury, Block, Scenery, Death, Alarm, and Open. Open, Rest, and Life are traditionally grouped as the three auspicious gates; these names are not predictions. The Eight Spirits are symbolic roles such as Chief, Serpent, Great Yin, Six Harmony, White Tiger (or Hooked Earth), Black Tortoise (or Vermilion Bird), Nine Earth, and Nine Heaven. Schools differ on some substitutions.

Palace	4 Xun: Tianfu	9 Li: Tianying	2 Kun: Tianrui
3 Zhen: Tianchong	5 Center: Tianqin	7 Dui: Tianzhu
8 Gen: Tianren	1 Kan: Tianpeng	6 Qian: Tianxin

Yang Dun is generally used after the winter solstice and Yin Dun after the summer solstice; the former arranges forward and the latter backward under the basic convention. Together the nine charts for each direction make eighteen configurations. These are procedural categories, not physical motion in the sky.

Practice#

1. Reproduce the Nine Stars and Eight Gates on a blank Nine Palaces grid.
2. Recite the Six Jia-to-Instrument pairs.
3. Draw four transparent layers and label what each contains.

Check your understanding#

1. Which instrument conceals Jia-Xu?
2. Name the three traditionally auspicious gates.
3. Where is Tianpeng's original palace?

Answers: 1. Ji. 2. Open, Rest, and Life. 3. Kan, Palace 1.

Lesson 95 · Qimen Dunjia II: Setting a Chart and Reading It#

Learning goals#

• Understand the five-stage chart construction sequence.
• Recognize common chart patterns without treating them as guaranteed outcomes.

Lesson#

Qimen chart construction proceeds in stages. First use the date, solar term, and chosen three-period rule to determine Yin or Yang Dun and the chart number. Second, place the Six Instruments and Three Wonders on the Earth Plate. Third, locate the Jia-hour marker for the time's ten-day cycle and use its palace to determine the Chief star and Chief gate. Fourth, move the Heaven Plate according to the hour stem. Fifth, arrange the Human and Spirit Plates according to the lineage's rules. Methods called chai bu, zhi run, and chao jie handle chart changes near solar-term boundaries differently, so software can disagree when settings differ.

For a defined practice input—winter solstice, upper period, Yang Dun 1—the Earth Plate starts Wu in Kan 1 and proceeds through Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui, Ding, Bing, and Yi in the standard palace sequence. “Azure Dragon Returns to the Head” (Heaven Plate Wu over Earth Plate Bing) and “Flying Bird Falls into the Nest” (Heaven Plate Bing over Earth Plate Wu) are names for stem combinations. “Entering the tomb” means a stem falls in a traditionally designated tomb position. These are chart labels, not promises of a favorable result.

The person asking selects a yong shen (the chart symbol used for the topic); traditional examples use Life Gate for money, Scenery Gate for exams, and Open Gate for travel. Men po (“gate pressure”) means the gate's phase controls the palace phase. A correctly placed chart permits checking the procedure; it does not guarantee that the interpretation will occur in reality.

Pattern	Combination	Traditional gloss
Azure Dragon Returns to the Head	Heaven stem Wu over Earth stem Bing	Highly auspicious
Flying Bird Falls into the Nest	Heaven stem Bing over Earth stem Wu	Highly auspicious
Gate pressure	Gate's phase controls its palace	Weakens an auspicious gate; intensifies an inauspicious one
Entering the tomb	Stem falls in its assigned tomb palace	Constrained

Practice#

1. Use an app to chart a chosen time; identify the Earth Plate, Heaven Plate, gates, and spirits.
2. Locate the Chief star and Chief gate, recording the charting method and settings.
3. Find the Life Gate and note its palace.

Check your understanding#

1. What does “Winter Solstice, Jingzhe 1-7-4” mean in the period table?
2. Which gate is traditionally used for a money question?
3. What is gate pressure?

Answers: 1. For Winter Solstice and Jingzhe, the upper, middle, and lower periods use Yang Dun charts 1, 7, and 4 respectively. 2. Life Gate. 3. The gate phase controls the phase of its palace.

Lesson 96 · Great Liuren#

Learning goals#

• Calculate the Heaven/Earth plate relation using “month general over hour.”
• Recognize the Four Lessons, Three Transmissions, and Twelve Generals.

Lesson#

In Great Liuren, “month general over hour” (yuejiang jia shi) sets the Heaven Plate. The month general is one of twelve Earthly Branch symbols, traditionally associated with the Sun's position and changed at a zhongqi (major solar term). The casting hour is the time of the question. Place the month general above the Earth-Plate branch for the hour, then lay out the other twelve branches in sequence. For an example after the winter solstice, use Chou as month general. At You hour, place Chou over You; moving both positions through the branch cycle, Earth-Plate Zi has Heaven-Plate Chen above it, and Earth-Plate Wu has Heaven-Plate Xu.

Only after constructing the two plates does the practitioner build the Four Lessons. Starting from the day stem's assigned position and the day branch, the procedure repeatedly takes the corresponding upper spirit to form four paired relations. The Three Transmissions—initial, middle, and final—are chosen through the Nine Methods (jiu zong men). These methods include Robbery/Overcoming, Comparison, Involvement, Remote Overcoming, and special chart patterns called Mao Xing, Bie Ze, Ba Zhuan, Fu Yin, and Fan Yin. They are algorithmic branches for selecting the initial transmission, not auspiciousness labels. The Twelve Generals—Nobleman, Serpent, Vermilion Bird, Six Harmony, Hooked Earth, Azure Dragon, Sky Void, White Tiger, Great Constant, Black Tortoise, Great Yin, and Heavenly Empress—add another symbolic layer.

Without the specific day stem and day branch, an example can verify the two-plate mapping but cannot claim to have completed the Four Lessons and Three Transmissions. The Three Transmissions are traditionally read as beginning, middle, and end; this is an interpretive framework, not an objectively guaranteed timeline.

Major solar term after	Branch	Month general
Rain Water	Hai	Dengming
Spring Equinox	Xu	Hekui
Grain Rain	You	Congkui
Grain Full	Shen	Chuansong
Summer Solstice	Wei	Xiaoji
Great Heat	Wu	Shengguang
Limit of Heat	Si	Taiyi
Autumn Equinox	Chen	Tiangang
Frost's Descent	Mao	Taichong
Minor Snow	Yin	Gongcao
Winter Solstice	Chou	Daji
Great Cold	Zi	Shenhou

Practice#

1. Memorize the twelve month generals and their change points.
2. For Chou general over You hour, calculate what appears above Earth-Plate Zi and Wu.
3. Use one identified manual or app to locate Four Lessons and Three Transmissions; record its edition.

Check your understanding#

1. What is the month general from winter solstice to Great Cold?
2. Which position is assigned to the Geng day stem?
3. What do the Three Transmissions represent in the traditional reading?

Answers: 1. Chou, Daji. 2. Shen. 3. Beginning, process, and outcome. Practice 2: Chen is above Zi; Xu is above Wu.

Lesson 97 · Taiyi Shenshu#

Learning goals#

• Understand Taiyi's customary subject matter and cycle structure.
• Reproduce the simplified eight-palace, three-year cycle.

Lesson#

Taiyi Shenshu is a traditional system focused on national cycles, disasters, and military affairs. “Accumulated years” count from a text's assumed “upper origin, Jia-Zi,” a theoretical calendar epoch; sources may use different starting points. In the simplified model for this lesson, Taiyi circulates through eight outer palaces, spending three years at each, for a 24-year circuit. Wen Chang, Shi Ji, host general, and guest general are chart symbols. Host and guest calculations compare two groups under internal rules; they are not modern statistical forecasts.

With this simplified cycle, years 1–3 occupy palace one; years 4–6 palace two; years 22–24 palace eight; year 25 begins again. Forty-eight years make two cycles. The arithmetic can be checked, but without a source's epoch, full chart, and host/guest values, it cannot produce a chart for a particular year or explain a specific disaster. Historical testing would require a prediction written beforehand, a defined time window and failure criterion, and complete recording of misses as well as selected matches.

The tradition includes works such as Wang Ximing's Tang-era Taiyi Jinjing Shi Jing and later compilations like Taiyi Tongzong Baojian. Text formation, authorship, and editions should be examined source by source. Taiyi is less commonly studied because its scope is large-scale, calculations are demanding, and transmitted texts have errors; today it is also studied as part of the history of divination and astronomy.

Practice#

1. Summarize the traditional focus of Taiyi, Qimen, and Liuren in one sentence each.
2. How many circuits are completed in 48 years under the simplified model?
3. Compare these systems with divination and destiny calculation in terms of what can be checked independently.

Check your understanding#

1. How many years does Taiyi spend at each palace in this simplified model?
2. Why does it not enter the central palace? Give the course's traditional explanation.
3. Name a representative Taiyi text.

Answers: 1. Three years. 2. The center is treated as Taiyi's central residence; the circuit is through the eight directions. Different schools explain this differently. 3. Wang Ximing's Taiyi Jinjing Shi Jing.